True Friendship Poem by Luo Zhihai

★ True Friendship
☆ Poetry by Hannington Mumo


Throw a great feast and the world fills your halls,
Cry for help when disaster strikes and few will come;
For every man has enough pains and sorrows of his own
And none really cares about yours except your mum.

True friends are rarer than the choicest gold,
And enemies have perfected their pretence and guise;
They want to be closer to know your life well,
In order to plot your downfall and trim your rise.

So it’s up to you naive chap to learn how to live
In a world full of faked intimacies and crocodile tears,
And though you will never fully tell chums from your foes
You will have to distinguish honest from bogus cheers.

Pray that God protects you from enemies you can’t know
And be to all that need your help merciful and kind;
Ask for wisdom to know true friends from the faking hordes,
And be a friend yourself and a true friend you’ll find.


▲ Chinese Translation

★ 真正的朋友

☆ [肯尼亚] 汉宁顿•武茂（1987-） 诗
☆ [中国] 罗志海（1954-） 译


把一场盛宴和全世界丢满你的大厅
灾难来临要喊救命，虽然很少会来
除了你妈妈，没有人会真正关心你
因为每个人都有自己够多的痛苦和悲哀

真正的朋友比最上等的黄金更罕见
敌人已经完善他们的借口和幌子
他们想更接近了解你的生活
按部就班地整垮你，修理你

你这个幼稚的小家伙要学会如何生活
因为这世界充满了鳄鱼的眼泪和假情假意
虽然你永远不会完全告诉密友以提防你的敌人
你只好从假欢呼声中区分谁最诚实

祈求上帝保护你，脱离未知的敌手
进而仁慈帮助所有的人们
用智慧，结识真正的朋友，小心诈骗者成群
你自己终将找到真正的朋友


2015年3月30日翻译